4 of our brothers and sisters entered the waters of baptism.

July 29, 2013

This week was really good. SO much happened I can't even begin to tell every little story. But I'll give you an update. This week we were spoiled with so many miracles. Absolutely spoiled. It was incredible. So many that I feel we got our whole months full in one week so we'll see how the next few weeks are! Haha just kidding. Like I expressed last week, we don't know the area very well. We're trying, but we're not perfect. We got lost once or twice this week. But every time we got lost we found someone who was prepared to learn about the restored gospel. It was incredible, I was going to just try to get lost but I thought that might be cheating.

 We were able to see 4 of our brothers and sisters enter the waters of baptism on Saturday. Robbie, Lori, Joe, and Jessica. President Jenkins was able to come and it was absolutely incredible.The Spirit was so very strong, just seeing them get washed of everything and stand clean before the Lord. The Spirit that was there was overwhelming and as I had an opportunity to bear my testimony the Spirit confirmed to me what I'm doing here. On Sunday I was able to stand in the circle as they all received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Robbie (an ex-marine) stood up with tears in his eyes after his confirmation took place. It was incredible. The Spirit was so strong and testified to all of us that these things are true, that we have the authority to call down the powers of heaven as long as we are worthy of it.

I need to work on loving Elder Bartlett more. That's my goal this week, is to truly help him know the Savior. I don't completely know Him yet but helping someone so close to me so often will probably help me learn to appreciate Him a lot more. We found 12 new people to teach this week. They all invited us back and listened to us. There's a man named Jamie that pulled us over and asked us to come by. He's awesome. There are so many incredible things happening here. We were able to teach 24 lessons this week. It was one of those weeks when everyone wants to talk to ya. I loved it. That's cool you met that Elder from Queen Creek (that's the Mormon part of town, even worse than Gilbert.), what did he say about AJ? I love it out here, the people are so different. They are very humble. It's sad how so many of them fall to the things of the world and continually let them drag them deeper and deeper. I'm so grateful for the gospel in my life so I don't have to worry about all of that. I'm grateful to serve these people and helped them be lifted up with Christ.

We stopped by a Less Active and we were able to meet his girlfriend who isn't a member. At first she wanted nothing to do with us so I just talked to her. We chatted and eventually she brought up a concern of how people raised in the church leave when they get out on their own sometimes. Or strong members fall away. I felt like I should share with her the experience I had when Grandma passed away. When I had to decide if this was really true. I'm grateful that I had the chance to gain a testimony for myself at that time, it wasn't perfect but it was a testimony. She had a grandmother that had lived with her for 15 years that passed away when she was younger and she was really able to relate to that. She invited us back to talk more about the gospel because I promised her it will bless her life.

I'm grateful for the experiences Our Father in Heaven gives us. For our own good and for the good of others. I'm grateful for the Spirit that leads and guides God's work on the earth today and I know that we can be lead in all things if we seek for that guidance. I know that true happiness comes from following Jesus Christ and learning to live by everything that He teaches us. I know that we have a prophet on earth today, and what a blessing it is. I know absolutely that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that He loves and knows me. He knows my companion, He knows our investigators, and He WANTS us to know Him.

I love you so much. Thank you for the support you have given me.

Love Elder Alexander 

Out here is a total different world. God has a plan

July 22, 2013

Well. I'm glad to hear that the wedding went so well! I looked pretty good out there, tell Adam and Jen congrats and I got their letter/announcement. I really appreciated that, I got it on transfer day and it really brightened my day! I'll be honest I have know idea about the excitement in SD, and PX or that rescue. We're kind of locked off from that kind of info.. And Dad let me know about the people staring at him and his theory that your room is merely a warehouse made to look like your room. Needless to say I'm a bit sad to be missing the adventures of medicated Dad. But I'm having plenty of adventures out here!

Let me tell you about my new companion. A nice young man named Elder Bartlett. Elder Bartlett is from none other than..... South Jordan, Utah!! We're neighbors. He lives down by the river bottoms. He just graduated from high school and turns 19 in a couple weeks.  We're both small white guys with glasses so that's fun. But I'm bigger so I've become the enforcer now.

Let me tell you about the area. We cover the Merril Creek and the Signal Butte 1st ward. They were previously covered by the Zone Leaders out here in Superstition, but they split the area. So they cover the other two and we took over these ones. One of the Elders that served here right before us, Elder Armstrong, actually just left to be the Assistant to the President. So the area is in pretty decent shape. It just hasn't had the love and attention it needs because they covered 4 wards and they were Zone Leaders. We have 4 baptisms this Saturday. Lori, Robbie, and Joe. A family. And Jessica. We are very excited for all of them.

We live in a quaint little place called the Jafa Apartments. Pretty ghetto. As far as Arizona goes at least. We're on the border of AJ and Mesa, so technically we have a Mesa address but I guess we're in a "County Island" so we belong to neither city. But right across the street is AJ. Pretty interesting stuff.

This week was pretty tough, just trying to get to know everyone and the streets right not! This area is far bigger than my last, not huge but bigger. I'm definitely learning a lot. And I'll be honest my last area was a little Utah. It really was. But out here is a total different world. I mean we have nice areas but most of it is trailers and junk. People just talk about all of the people on drugs on stuff, it's a real 'compelled to be humble' kind of place. I looooooooove it. The work is going to move forward so strong I can't wait. We have awesome ward mission leaders and awesome members to top it off.

Miracle moment. Remember Jerry, the one that was in prison that I helped out in my last area? Well, I was bummed because he'd moved out to AJ and we heard that the missionaries stopped by once and then they weren't helping him out anymore. Well... I walk into Merril Creek sacrament meeting and who do I see? None other than my good ol friend Jerry. We had one of the greatest reunions I'd ever seen and the smile on his face when I told him I was serving in the ward and we were going to help him out made everything better. God has a plan.

Love Elder Alexander

                                                          Big Daddy Jesus. He's the man.

 This is the infamous Hector, Sarah, and Lil Hector. Sarah changed so much in my time there. I'm sad I wasn't able to see her enter into the baptismal font but I know she will. Hector gave me one of the most sincere thank you's and he finally prayed!!!! It was incredible.

 Pacheco and his family. This family rules, they're in the Windsor Ward. (They gave me the shoes.)

 This is Brother and Sister Lambson. They're one of my favorite families in the Greenfield Park Ward.

 Brother Olson. Ward Mission Leader. He's getting me some leather scripture cases straight out of El Salvador.

Tyler got back from his mission right before I got to the area. He helped us out a lot. Love the guy. He served in North Carolina and he knew Garrett Steed.

Sean and the rest of the clan. (Minus the daughter). Sean gave me a big ol hug when I went to leave. I got all of their emails and I'm going to keep on em until they're all baptized!

                                 This is Sister Crisp cutting me hair. Gotta look obedient for the greenie.

I looked pretty good out there!!!!

Transfers and Training. I'm getting a son!

July 15, 2013

Well, I did get transfer news this week, but I'll save that til the end! We had an incredible week one of our best weeks in a while, full of miracles and answers to my prayers around every stinkin corner. I needed this week, really did. We got back up to teaching 14 member present lessons, a long with 7 other ones. And we met with loads of Less Actives. It was amazing. I felt the Spirit so absolutely strong this week. I felt it guide me at times and we ended up finding 5 new investigators. A couple were former and the others were people we just met on the street! It was awesome. I'm feeling a little more up to typing today so I'll do the good ol day by day run down.

Monday-
Monday was good. We went bowling. A young man named Mason who is heading to Peru for his mission in September took us shopping. While we were walking around we got the great idea to go bowling!! So we did it. It was superb. Our lane neighbors were an incredibly awkward couple. And I bowled a 188 the first game! Fantastic. It was like 6 bucks for 3 games. Can't beat that. The rest of the day was pretty eh. Appointments fell through that night. But I still enjoyed it!

Tuesday-
We met with Debbie in the morning. She's doing awesome, we moved her baptism date to August 17th. Because she'll be in New York on August 10th. She's still trying to quit smoking but she can do it. While we were teaching (mind you it was about 11 in the morning) Debbie's grumpy son in law (not a member but his wife is (who is Debbie's daughter)) comes out. He makes us call him Mr. Durette. But his names S. Anyways. He comes out and we politely ask how he is, and he responds with, "I'd be better if I was sleeping." I thought it was a joke. So I laughed. He didn't. And he stated such. He's just grumpy. So we dusted our shoes and went on our way.

Wednesday-
Zone Training Meeting!!! It was great. We set goals, practiced. The whole shebang. And guess what I found out. The church has changed some of the mission rules. They have a new dress and grooming section, you can check it out on lds.org. And guess what! We can no longer have backpacks on our missions. So I have until August 5th to get a satchel/messenger bag/"murse". We're going to go today to check out burlington or good will and see if they have any cheap ones.So I got the hydration pack in the package, but unfortunately I can no longer use my backpack. But I'm thinking I'll put my hydration pack in my messenger bag. We'll see how it goes.

Thursday-
We met with Debbie again. she was really talkative. But she wanted to go to the Visitors Center so we went on Friday!!

Friday-
As stated above we went to the VC with Debbie in the morning. We watched "The Testaments", she cried. It was a hoot. Besides the fact that she had her two granddaughters with her and they were trying to sit on my lap for a good 15 minutes. It was the worst. We were able to teach a new family, Heida and Jennifer. They were very receptive it was a really spiritual lesson. They were super open and they are so excited to learn about the Plan of Salvation. Heida's husband/ Jennifer's dad passed away 5 years ago and when we mentioned that we had answers to the questions of the soul their eyes lit up. It was amazing.

Saturday-
Saturday was a great day. We went to do service for a former at 9. But it fell through. And then we went to teach Eric. Have I told you about Eric? Big. Black. And he loves his bible. Super nice guy but he thinks the Bible is perfect so it's tough. But we took Tyler with us. He recently returned from his mission in North Carolina. And he was amazing. I wasn't sure how to handle Eric because usually people are pretty receptive to us or just listen and then say thanks and never do anything. But Eric spits fire at us. It's crazy. But he read through 1 Nephi 14. Had tons of questions. And it was amazing to see his heart start to soften. It was slight but he still admitted that he feels like he's progressing. 

Then we went back to our house and did our weekly planning. We missed it Friday because we were busy all afternoon. After that we went and stopped by my buddy Sean that got baptized a couple months ago. We'd given him a chapter to read and his dad read it too which was awesome. But while we were there I got a call.

President Jenkins called me. He told me that he had something he wanted me to do for him. Of course I said ok, I'm not going to say no to President. Bittersweet news. I will be leaving Kimball Zone, and the comforts of the Thomsen home. I'm being transfered. Elder Salesulu will be staying here until he gets his Visa, but they're sending him 2 companions. So they'll be good to go when he leaves. As for me, I'm heading out to the Superstition Zone. Which is the Apache Junction area. I'm super stoked, I guess it's a whole new world out there. My favorite explanation I've heard of AJ is,m "Less teeth. More tattoos." I'm seriously so stoked. Out there I'm going to be whitewashing an area, which means that me and my companion will be new to the area. There were missionaries there before but we're giving it a fresh start. My companions last area was..... The MTC. I'm going to be training a brand new missionary, a little greenie, I'm getting a son! It's going to be so crazy. I'm going to need to be praying ALOT ALOT!  I'm super excited..And super nervous and overwhelmed. But definitely excited! Like I said it's bittersweet. Bitter because I love this area, love the people. I have a lot of people like family around here! But it's pretty sweet because I know I'm going to learn and grown so much. And I'm ready for the Lord to mold me some more.

President said something that really touched me. He said, "Elder Alexander, I know you haven't been out too terribly long but I want you to know that we have a lot of trust in you." That was an answer to my prayers. I was begging Heavenly Father for His trust, to know that I had it. And boom, there it is.

Sunday-
No one came to church. No idea why. They were supposed to but they just didn't haha. But it's ok, it happens. 

Well that's the week, highlights mostly. But I love you so much. I"m going to be fasting tomorrow so I will definitely keep you in my prayers tomorrow Dad. That's awesome you were able to get a Priesthood blessing, the Priesthood is such an incredible blessing. It truly is. I know it's real, it facilitates miracles when it is used worthily and with faith. I was able to participate in 2 blessings this week. Love it. I know that Heavenly Father knows each one of us. He really does and He really cares. So don't worry, just do all you can and I know it will work out. I'm grateful to be out here, it's such a blessing. I've really learned so much. From every person that I have talked to I have been able to learn something. I'm really grateful for that.I know that this work is moving forward and it's such a blessing to be out here right now. 

Tell Adam and Jen congrats. I expect a tie from.the wedding. Tell Lisa I say Hi, and Greg too if you get the chance! 

Til we speak again! (Pray for me on Wednesday.)

Love Elder Alexander

Heavenly Father wanted to see if I'd get back on my knees

July 8, 2013
So. Great to hear from you as always. How was your birthday Mother? Get anything fun? I still haven't received that package that you spoke of but we'll cut the office some slack right now. They have a lot on their plate. Don't worry, I'm staying hydrated. We stop by members all the time, or potential people and they're pretty merciful and offer us drinks. Which I'm grateful for. I have to force myself to drink in the morning before we leave so that I have enough water to sustain me for a bit. I'm excited for that pack to come!  What's the news on the wedding? I wrote Adam and Jen but didn't hear anything back! Hope you had a great Independence Day, mine was pretty great. Celebrated our free agency mostly, it was a treat. 

On Wednesday we met President Jenkins. He's a great guy. We also found out some interesting stuff. Apparently we only got 10 new missionaries from the split (Those missionaries in Globe) so most of us were called to Mesa and those 10 were called to Tempe. But we welcome them anyways. We still have about 130 missionaries in the Mesa mission which covers Mesa, Apache Junction, and Globe. It's tiny. I didn't get a pic with President but they took one of the zone and him and I think they're going to send it to you if I'm not mistaken. Another fun info, President said that by the end of the year every companionship will have an iPad and an iPhone. Pretty crazy.

So this week I learned a lot about prayer. I'm still working on turning my heart over to the Lord. I still feel like I'm holding back parts of it, and I can't figure out what I need to do. So I prayed to Heavenly Father. I prayed for a little while, and it did help me feel a little better. This was on Monday, as we went out that night absolutely nothing happened. I was discouraged,  but I know that Heavenly Father wanted to see if I'd get back on my knees. He wanted to know if I'd trust Him, if I'd continue to turn to Him for strength, and that's what I did. I was on my knees for a while that night as well. (Elder Salesulu takes showers at night so that leaves me some time to myself. I know that Heavenly Father wants to bless us. Sometimes we just need to ask. I lost sight of that for a while, I was saying prayers. There were words, but my heart wasn't there. As soon as I put my heart into miracles followed. The rest of the week was pretty good as well but Tuesday strengthened my faith like crazy.

Tuesday was full of miracles. It was amazing. I specifically prayed for a miracle with Debbie, we had a meeting with her Tuesday morning, and I prayed for a miracle again in the morning. As we met with Debbie the Spirit was very strong and we helped her realize her true relationship with her Father in Heaven. That He love her, and if she truly loves Him that is what should drive her to prepare for baptism. Her love for God. We asked her if she loved God more than smoking and she said yes. Then we invited her to be baptized. She had prayed for a date and had received August. We set the date for August 10th. It was amazing. Miracles kept on throughout the week.

We are still working with Jesus and Sarah. They are coming a long great. They both fasted with us yesterday. (Sarah told us she failed though... She ate breakfast... And lunch. So she didn't fast but she tried haha). And they both came to church! We talked to President about Jesus and we're thinking we're going to send a letter to the First Presidency to get approval due to his probation. But we'll see, he should be meeting with President next week sometime.

This week was tough because a lot of people were out of town but we still were able to teach about 16 lessons and we found 3 new people to teach. It was pretty successful all in all. To answer your question transfers are next Wednesday. We'll get transfer news on Saturday... I've been here 4 transfers now so that's usually the norm. Pretty rare to stay much longer than that, but I'll go where the Lord needs me!! We're seeing miracles and I know it's because of our diligence. Some members gave me some free Reebok shoes. They're super nice. The members and the shoes. It's the Pachecos, they're converts of about 5 years.  Pacheco was Catholic and an alcoholic, and now he's not! He's so awesome. Love that family.

Hope all is well, keep on keepin on. I know that God has a plan and when things aren't golden there's a reason. Either I'm doing something wrong or there's a reason I can't understand right now. But I can keep working hard! And then it will become golden (Job 23:10)

Well, This isn't the best letter ever but know that I love you all.

Love you lots,

Love Elder Alexander  

                                    This one makes us look like a chorus of angels.   (The District) 

 This was the one firework that I saw from our roof after planning. It was really far away. After siting there for a while looking for fireworks to no avail I almost gave up. Then this gem came.

                           These are the new shoes that the Pacheco's gave me. Charity for days.

GEORGE'S NEW ADDRESS IS 
Arizona Mesa Mission
2525 N 32nd ST
Mesa, AZ 85213

IT'S OFFICIAL I'M STAYING IN MESA

JULY 1, 2013
Como estas? Well it's official I'm staying a Mesa missionary just like I was called!! No big changes or surprises still residing in the Kimball East Stake with my buddy Elder Salesulu. President Jenkins arrived on Thursday, I am yet to meet him but come Wednesday I will shake his hand! I'm pretty excited. Our new mission home is also in function. The new address if you want to send me things is 2525 N 32nd Street Mesa, AZ 85213. Crazy, crazy. The work is definitely hastening! Our mission is pretty small. It's honestly just Mesa. Everyone says there's like one area down in Globe haha. So Mesa and Apache Junction are where it's at! But I don't have to worry about that I'm going to die in Kimball.

The work is still going! So many people out there need the gospel, I wish they could all see it but I'm grateful to help them recognize the truth. Even if they turn away I know that I'm still doing my job!

This week went pretty well. We're still struggling to find people but we're trying! For a little there I lost the habit of talking to everyone on the street, which is very bad and I had to repent. But we've been doing better this weeks and we placed a couple copies of the Book of Mormon and sent in a couple of referrals. We were heading over to the Argenta apartments the other day and there was a shirtless old man wading in the fountain out front, so we stopped and talked to him. He's just gotten hit by a car on his bike but he was ok. He was pretty nice at first, talked a lot about praying and how he always thanked God for everything. He had had a pretty tough life drugs and what not but he said he was trying to clean up. He was possibly going to get a house or something, sometimes he didn't make much sense because he hit his head when he got hit. But all of a sudden he got really aggressive. I asked him his name and he was like "I don't know... Toby!" Kind of angry like. IF you're going to lie to us please don't say I don't know first. We're not stupid. That's what I thought, I didn't say it. And then he asked for 50 cents and I told him I didn't have any many with me. He asked to borrow the phone and we just kind of started leaving..... He yelled at us to come back. Nice guy.

Remember Kace? 14 year old with a baptism date? Well he moved. I was super bummed. Like on the verge of falling into a deep depression. And then I thought, 'Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul. Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions. Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.' And then to my surprise I beheld that Nephi had thought this very same thing! But seriously I was down and Heavenly Father loves me enough that we got 5 referrals the very next day! I learned a good lesson there. I had a lot of doubt but I know that if I just continually put my trust in the Lord even when we go a month and a half without a baptism or 2 weeks without a new investigator I don't have to be down. I can look to Him for hope. And I love that!

Sarah is doing awesome. She still can't get baptized because she can't get married but she said once we get things figured out and they can get married that she would get baptized the next day!! She has come so far it's insane. She's going to join us in a fast this Sunday and I'm so excited to see the miracles that follow her faith. We're going to get a letter from Jesus tomorrow about his probation and see how long we're going to have to wait until he can get baptized. He's on 1 Nephi 13 now which is super awesome because he used to have such a hard time reading the Book of Mormon and all of a sudden he reads 13 chapters in 1 week! Miracles for days out her in AZ.

I went on an exchange with Elder Cabrera. He's from Honduras and he is the best. I was in the Spanish area for the day. Every single appointment canceled. All of them. After they'd cancel he'd say, "So.. we'll just waste our time here until our next appointment." I think he was half kidding but I think if I'd said ok he would have just sat there. But I said no and we went and talked to some other people I couldn't understand! It was a good day.

I had an interesting experience this week. We stopped by a member, Bro Alger, to get some water. He invited us in. They had this paper for their family reunion that had the names of all of the missionaries from their extended family and where they served. I was just looking, there were a lot of names. I got to the last name on the list and it says "Dallin Hazelgren El Salvador East 2013-2015." I was just kind of like, ha I know a Dallin Hazelgren. As I continued to sweep the papers my eyes also fell on "Bj Hazelgren" and "Colby Price." What in the world! So if you get the chance tell Dallin congrats and good luck on his mission! Lucky for him he gets to escape this Arizona sun.

Oh my goodness, get over that wimpy 100 degrees haha. Just kidding seriously it's just hot. 120 or 100, it's all just hot. Even with glasses I feel the sting of a thousand needles piercing my eye ball as we ride down the street. But I love it a lot. Sweating isn't too bad, it makes me feel like I'm working hard haha.  Apparently it's about to get real humid and that's going to be fun. It's monsoon season and I can't wait! My shirts are turning yellow and I have plenty of minor stains and I love it!

I think about you oft whenever anything America is mentioned. Sister Cotter (wife of our ward mission leader) is a high school history teacher and she loves America a lot, and she loves to talk! You too would get a long great, you'll have to meet her one day.
Well pop good luck with your pageant this week, send me some pics! I'll carry my love for America in my heart always. A long side my love for the Lord, and you and mom.

Thanks for the prayers. I'm very grateful for them and can feel them. It's really so crazy to me some days how happy I can be when i'm exhausted and everything is going wrong. Haha Heavenly Father cares for those that care for Him. I know that for sure, He loves us but He expects love too. It makes sense.

Well that's it! We're going to see miracles this week so stay tuned! I can feel them just on the horizon. I'm grateful for a God of miracles. That loves us enough to send miracles in the times that we need them most. Thank you for raising me in this gospel. I sometimes think about why I was so blessed to be born into the gospel and learn of it's truthfulness from birth. I'm grateful that I still had the chance to pray and ask of it's truthfulness and that Heavenly Father listened! I'm grateful for sunglasses and sunscreen too. And all of the people that I love. 

<3

Elder Alexander